Mafia Gazette Issue 29
For All The News That Is News (E&OE) 4th November 2013 Editor In Chief: Carmela_DeAngelis Managing Editor: Randle_McMurphy 'SHIFTING SANDS: THE EBB AND FLOW OF POWER' By: Anony Mouse There was a time in the not so distance past whereby if you wanted to start up a crime family in the United States, there was one person you needed to ask for authorisation. EmiliaRicci. The LA Misfits held complete dominance over the criminal element, and without the nod from Ricci you would not rise to power. Many of the recent leaders were given their own cities by Ricci, Johnnie, Alexei_Volkoff, Joseph-DiVarco, Fabrizio_Moretti, all former members or hand-picked by the LA boss to grow into families of their own. Recent wars have seen those numbers of ex-Misfit leaders dwindle, and in the last few days the first auths from a source outside of LA have been made. James-Burke, newly promoted Don who took the reins of NY’s Winter Tempest Society after the death of Johnnie, has planted seeds in both Chicago and Detroit. Effectively securing the North East, a corner of the country has seemingly been torn from Ricci’s map of influence. Sources indicate no opinion was sought from the LA Consigliere regarding the appointment of Chicago’s Richard_Kuklinski, or Vincent-Gigante in Detroit. With the leadership in New York placing their own stamp on the country, it would appear the balance of power is shifting slowly to the East. Rumours of discontent among the remaining Misfits are slowly gaining volume, and it remains to be seen whether Ricci has the drive to regain her grip on the criminal underworld. With Burke technically outranking Ricci in the eyes of the Godfathers, who truly makes the decisions these days? With such a long history of East vs West rivalries across the mafia ranks, can two distant powers ever truly co-operate, or will war always be an inevitable conclusion? Only time will tell. 'CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE? AS PEACE SETTLES THERE’S NO DISPUTING NEW YORK’S INFLUENCE' By: Oscar Perhaps the most significant part of the Don’s speech was in his closing comments as he indicated a change in the old ways. No longer would ambitious mobsters propose their own advancement. The authorization process by which top captains and bosses break off to form their own families was no longer going to be in the hands of those same captains and bosses. Self-promotion is gone, they no longer have a say. From now on if you want to run a city the message is clear, don’t call us, we’ll call you. What part Los Angeles and Miami will play in this process is yet to be determined. Since James Burke’s meeting two new families have formed in Chicago and Detroit under former New York hit man and gunrunner Richard Kuklinski and former New York pimp and whiskey baron Vincent “Vinnie” Gigante respectively. Both are Bosses and both earned their reputations in some of the recent wars fought by the New York family. Gigante narrowly avoided an assassination attempt by the former Detroit leader Alexei Volkoff while for his part Kuklinski is reputed to have been the triggerman in several hits. While effectively running their own families it’s believed both will retain close ties to New York. And with former Chicago and Detroit leaders Il Diavolo and Anton "The Pin" Yershov eliminated, James Burke has moved quickly to replace them, expanding his empire to three cities in the process. With Alexei Volkoff’s short return ending in his untimely death both leaders now have a unique opportunity to solidify control on their cities unchallenged. Both have moved quickly with the Gigante boys also taking up residence in Detroit and Kuklinski recruiting in the mid-west for his mid-town mob. And what of New York? Sources report that Wallace Wolfe has been bumped up to Boss and given control of the family’s racketeering and extortion in the city. Meanwhile Alexander has been promoted to Underboss of the family. Both are powerful Bosses themselves and will reap the financial benefits from their moves upward in the structure. Immediately below the Don James Burke are his two Consiglieres, Eddie Stobart and Tommy Udo. Both are reputed to have the Don’s ear in his business affairs and are said to be quiet, dangerous operators. Stobart is the heavier hitter of the two, revered in the underworld for allegedly having assassinated Fabrizio Moretti personally and known nationally as a fearsome hit man. Udo meanwhile has quietly knocked off a number of big ranks from the rival families opposing New York. Below the Don and his leading mobsters are a raft of Capos and Bosses, any one of which could move up in New York or elsewhere at any given moment. As New York spreads its wings crime reporters everywhere are asking will the families fill all nine cities with crime bosses and if they do, who will fill them? 'BETTING RING SMASHED' By: Anony Mouse In the early hours of Tuesday morning a house was raided in the downtown area of Crown Heights Brooklyn. One man was arrested after a vicious stand off and taken into custody. The man arrested was named as a one Mr Toni-Pemoni aged 31 and of an Italian origin. Rumours had been circulating that Mr Pemoni had been operating an illegal betting ring in which horses would be drugged and betting being fixed. Large sums of money where taken from the house and evidence that was described as incriminating in the form of names addresses and notes with details of the horses that would win in certain races. Also taken were samples of the drugs that were used to drug the horses and increase their performance. Mr Pemoni who has a number of criminal offenses for handling stolen goods and Racketeering was held and questioned for twelve hours about his involvement in the operation. He was accompanied by his lawyer A Mr James Davenport who would be advising him of his rights. Mr Davenport who has a past record of working for some alleged high profile members of the New York underground was said to be happy that his employer had answered all questions asked. In a statement given by Mr Davenport he said “My client Mr Pemoni seems to be the target of a fabricated story into some kind of betting scam in which he has supposedly been involved in. I can assure you this is not true and we will be answering any questions the police may have" The New York police department issued this statement "We arrested a man early this morning that is helping us with our enquiries into an illegal betting ring. The man was released until further enquiries have been made. Mr Mr Pemoni was advised not to leave the city and to return to the police department when told to do so. 'THE STREET BOSS: THE END OF AN ERA' By: Anony Mouse Years ago this proud country had a vast population of Street Bosses. These young and inexperienced individuals did not take the traditional route. Instead they chose the road less travelled. In doing this they ultimately were leaving themselves exposed and unprotected. Without the backing of one of the ’Core Families’ these Street Bosses and their Hoodlum associates would fall victim to countless attempts on their lives. Despite being vulnerable and unprotected, there was a certain amount of respect that came with their territory. It was always interesting to see these individuals attempt to make a name for themselves, and in those rare instances where one of them actually catches the eye of the Godfather and earns himself that coveted promotion to Made Man. These days there seems to be a different attitude towards those who attempt to shape their own destiny by embarking on their own journey without the backing of any family. Some would argue that once someone becomes a Street Boss that they become an instant target. Shoot on sight. Some would also argue that those individuals that break tradition and decide to go their own route create an interesting environment that ultimately makes for a better overall experience. In the days of Aureliano and Ronin and their ‘Commission’ we saw an entire city become a safe haven for any individual who wanted to try their luck and prove that they could make a name for themselves. Today, we do not share this same vision that so many of our ancestors once did. We see the Street Boss as an unnecessary individual, who ultimately poses a threat to our way of life. The era of the Street Boss has not been completely forgotten. There are still a few individuals that are dedicated and actually put in the work and time necessary to make a name for themselves, but their numbers are limited. The thriving Street Boss population that once was an integral part of this country has declined much over the years. Is it the difficulties associated with no backing and no protection that discourages so many from proclaiming themselves as a Street Boss? I, for one, would like to see the return of a large Street Boss population. Having that kind of diversity is what makes our day to day lives more interesting. 'THE BLACK SOX SCANDAL' By: Anony Mouse In all my years of investigative journalism, I have never come across a scandal that involved sport. I have seen crooked cops, bent judges and everything in-between, we have always considered our national treasure, baseball, to be free from corruption. Something that we can turn to when all else fails, when life gets tough. Not anymore. This information would not have even come to my attention if not for the recent demise of Chicago Mob Boss Fabrizio Moretti. This man was at the centre of the scandal, pulling the strings. One of his low level associates who occasionally drove for him has turned federal informant, I have managed to gain access to the files that have been created from the various interviews with this man. It is alleged that Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, a known gambler, approached Mr Moretti to suggest that he fix the World Series. Initially, Moretti declined, however, when he was approached by a second man, Abe Atell, he realised that this was too good an opportunity to turn down, and he went back to Sullivan. It was the fact that two men were competing to fix the game that made Moretti feel like he could get involved, make some quick money and then get out clean. He obviously underestimated what men in his family would do for survival, something that violently came to light recently and led to his demise, as well as the truth behind this fix coming out. Moretti worked with both Atell and Sullivan to get the fix moving. Neither man realising that the other was involved. They targeted 8 of the Chicago White Sox senior players. Some were bribed, others were threatened and intimidated. Once the fix was in and the result assured, Moretti and his associates conspired to place several large bets on the outcome that they already knew of. Some sources believe that Moretti's decision not to bring in fellow bosses Anton 'ThePin' Yershov and Johnnie Boy Marren, may have helped in their decision to have the man murdered. Of course, that is pure speculation as no legal evidence has been found that links either of those two men to Moretti's death. The result went as Moretti expected and he made considerable sums of money believed to be in the millions. Where that money went is still a mystery, as little to no cash has been tied to Moretti after his death, even though he was believed to have had a personal fortune of over $400m. This incident, which I had named "The Black Sox Scandal" will forever tarnish our beautiful game. We will now find ourselves questioning every result. It is expected that the authorities will be subpoenaing all those believed to be involved in this scandal, in the hope of getting to the bottom of it once and for all. In the end, Moretti is now gone, but we are left with the harsh reality that our beloved, untouchable game of baseball, is no different to everything else in this dark world. 'CITIZEN RUNS AMOK' By: Longclaw Shortly before people headed home from a long day's work on September 3rd, a man wearing a top hat and holding a cane made his presence felt. Excalibur, a new citizen in the world sent a letter to unofficial Boss of Bosses, Emilia Ricci, asking the LA leader what her views were on 'this thing of ours?'. Emilia, either confused by Excalibur referring to her as a lad, or unwilling to speak of such a topic to an outsider sent back a letter asking Excalibur if he was on mind altering medication. This letter enraged Excalibur to a point that he stood in the street on a soapbox to show everyone that would pay attention to him just how unfit he felt Emilia was to be a leader. This action brought out Emilia herself along with Achilles to address Excalibur. Emilia's view was that she did not know Excalibur so did not want to discuss her business with him. The overall crowd opinion was that Excalibur spoke without knowing his place, which as a citizen was a the bottom of the ladder. Excalibur was able to get one person to agree with him when he accused Lexi while he and her debated that she knew nothing of a good debate. Realizing he may be right, Lexi agreed and abruptly left the debate likely to find a better one. Following up from his appearance in the street two days prior, Excalibur was walking down an empty street with his top hat on and his cane in hand when Blue Eyes attempted to kidnap him for his disrespectful antics on the street days prior. She failed in her attempt and suffered a gunshot wound in the process. The incident helped Excalibur regain any confidence he may have been lacking after his last street appearance and so he headed back to the street on September 8th to address anyone that would listen to him. This time, he set his sights on Irina Yanova from Detroit. According to Excalibur, they had agreed upon a deal where Excalibur would give Irina $15 million for 25 bullets. After Irina received his money, she backed out of the deal leaving Excalibur empty handed. Excalibur explained this to the people on the street and explained that he knew it would happen that way and he was merely running an experiment. A couple people stopped to listen to Excalibur this time but one of them ended up being a heckler that Excalibur tried to ignore. The next day, Excalibur tried to become a criminal but as soon as he attempted to, there was a large target on his back. He died September 9th at 3:22 PM and fittingly, his last words were criticizing his killer for their feeble way of killing him. While Excalibur didn't get along with the majority of the population, especially the female population, he did bring some entertainment to the streets whether it was intentional or not. 'AMENDMENT' In our last edition, an article entitled “The downfall of an empire”, it was implied that Sonny Black was killed by somebody under the command of LA mob boss EmiliaRicci. It has been suggested that the killer was, in fact, Danny Marino from Las Vegas. Neither the coroner’s office nor Police department were available for official comment, so I will leave it to the readers to decide which version is correct. 'CLASSIFIEDS' All classified ads are free. Mail your advert to Randle_McMurphy at the Gazette Offices in Chicago to have them included in the next issue. WRITERS WANTED Gazette writers wanted. Good rates of pay. Hours negotiable. Apply to Randle_McMurphy at the Gazette offices in Chicago. Browse • • • • • • •